Expert: Mark J. Markus- California Bankruptcy Attorney - 9/25/2008

Question
QUESTION: My wife and I filed a Chapter 7 petition in CT on 05/14/2008. The notice we received from the court on filing scheduled the meeting of creditors for 06/25/2008, listed 08/25/08 as the deadline for filing a Financial Management certificate as well as for filing a complaint objecting to Discharge of the Debtor. The deadline to object to exemptions was 30 days after the conclusion of the meeting of creditors.

Our Financial Management Certificates were filed on 06/12/2008. Had our meeting of creditors on June 25, 2008. That day the Trustee filed the following report under two headings, Chapter 7 Trustees Report of No Distribution and Meeting of Creditors Held: Trustee of this estate reports and certifies that the trustee has performed the duties required of a trustee under 11 U.S.C. 704 and has concluded that there are no assets to administer for the benefit of creditors of this estate. I have received no funds or property of the estate, and paid no monies on account of the estate. Wherefore, the trustee prays that this report be approved and the trustee be discharged from office.., Meeting of Creditors Held.

No objection to exemptions or complaint objecting to Discharge of the Debtor was filed. In fact, the only docket entries since 06/25/2008 are related to Motion for Relief from Stay regarding our home (we have no equity in that and are not paying our mortgage as we have decided to let it go into foreclosure, even though when we filed we thought we would keep the house and indicated that in our statement of intention), which was initiated by FNMA on 08/06/2008 and granted on 08/25/2008, plus a Request for Notices filed on 07/16/2008 by Citimortgage.

I was expecting the discharge order right after 08/25/2008 and that did not happen. Now I am clueless about what is going to happen. Is there anything I can / should do?

ANSWER: You can try calling the clerk's office to see if you can expedite things, but it usually takes a couple of months for them to process a discharge after the objections period has passed, at least here in the Central District of California.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: What concerns me is the fact that a number of cases in the same court with identical deadlines were discharged on 08/26/2008 itself, so in the District of CT they are able to process a discharge immediately. The wait does not materially affect me, but is my understanding that our discharge is a done deal' correct?

Answer
Yes, it should be a done deal.  They don't always process these things in order, and they may be waiting for the motion for relief hearings to be completed (even though that doesn't affect your discharge).  Only way to find out is to call the clerk's office.